How to Play the Major Pentatonic Scale on Guitar

Last week we looked at the minor pentatonic, this week I will show you how to play the major pentatonic scale on guitar.

Recap on Pentatonics

Remember that a pentatonic scale is simply any scale with 5 notes within the octave.

The major pentatonic is no different.

Like the minor pentatonic, the major pentatonic is anhemitonic – which is just a flash way to say that there are no semi-tone intervals in the scale.

The Major Pentatonic

To me this scale sounds very folk-like. Even just playing this scale in a certain rhythm sounds very folky to me.

So it’s quite fun to play around with.

O.k. so here are the intervals for the scale

Root

Whole tone

Whole tone

1 ½ tone

Whole tone

1 ½ tone (back to root)

So if we are to use C major pentatonic as an example it would go like this:

C (root)

D (whole tone from C)

E (whole tone from D)

G (1 ½ tones from E)

A (whole tone from G)

C (1 ½ tones from A)

Another way to think of it is that it is the major scale, but leaving out two notes. In the case of C major pentatonic the B and the F are not used. This isn’t to say that the two scales sound the same because leaving those notes out makes for a very different feel and very different tonal character.

Just try playing around with the scale for a while and then try chucking in the B and F and it will sound off.

Categories

Sixstringacoustic.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.